DOLOR: (n) a state of great sorrow and anguish
"Change can be frightening, and the temptation is often to resist it. But change almost always provides opportunities - to learn new things, to rethink tired processes, and to improve the way we work."

- Klaus Schwab

On a Saturday in March, Forks, Washington gains a new residence. Makenna Swan arrives in a taxi that has made the hour and a half drive from the Port Angeles airport. Recently orphaned, her new guardian is one Chief of Police, Charlie Swan. He is also the person who was supposed to pick her up this morning but wound up nowhere to be found which resulted in the nearly $100 taxi ride to Forks.

It pulls up in front of the Swan residence just after 12 and Makenna is beyond grateful that her Uncle Charlie had given her the address before this day. Aside from the rusted red truck in the driveway, no other vehicle is parked at the house, a sure sign that Charlie isn't home at the moment.

She has to assure the driver a couple times that she was alright and thank him a few more times for making the long drive. The generous tip certainly helped too. The man helps Makenna take her luggage out of the trunk and even carries it to the front door for her. She sends him off with another thank you.

It isn't until the taxi is no longer visible that Makenna knocks on the door. Ten minutes and multiple knocks later she finally comes to the conclusion that no one is home.

The teen can't find it in her to be upset with Charlie for forgetting about her and not being home. Back in Chicago, Dominic had been a detective and ever since she'd learned how to reheat food and entertain herself it became less of a surprise if Dominic didn't make a reappearance until the next morning. She hadn't resented him then and she doesn't resent Charlie now.

Just like Dominic had responsibilities because of being a detective that kept him away longer and meant he couldn't pick her up from school on occasion, Charlie had responsibilities that didn't allow him to pick her up from the airport. Plus, from what Makenna heard, her cousin who was also living with Charlie was going through some series problems which was only making things difficult for Charlie. It made Makenna feel a little guilty about popping up out of nowhere to stay with him.

With a sigh, Makkena plops herself on the porch and leans against the wall right by the door. The yawn that follows couldn't be contained even if she tries. The multiple flights from Illinois to Washington was exhausting and the taxi ride hasn't helped matters. Not to mention, Makenna never could fall asleep on public transportation or around strangers unless she's completely drained. All of that coupled with the sound of the pitter-patter of rain on the roof and leaves is what ends up lulling Makenna into a shallow sleep.

A car door slamming startles Makenna awake. She uses a hand rubs the sleep from her eyes, mind trying to connect the missing time from falling asleep to waking up. It takes her a couple moments for her blue eyes to notice the police cruiser parked on the curb and the man walking up the driveway with his head tipped down.

Charlie isn't wearing a police uniform like Makenna has been expecting. Instead, he's dressed in a nice black suit with his curly, brown hair flattened to his head and bags under his brown eyes. The light he remembers being in his eyes is strangely absent when he looks up. The moment he notices her is easy to see on his face which slowly fades into dawning realization of why his niece is on his front porch with multiple suitcases.

The cursing isn't a surprise - Dominic had been an avid curser, something that thankfully hadn't rubbed off on Makena - but it does prompt Makenna to stand up. She grimaces at the general dampness of her leggings but ignores it to go down the stairs to meet Charlie. He pulls her into a hug as soon as they meet, arms wrapped tightly around her and squishing her into his chest. The pressure and strength of the hug causes her to sigh quietly, something unfurling in her chest as she does. One thing she has been craving since the incident has been a nice, good bear hug. It's like salvation getting one after weeks without.

"Kenny I'm so sorry. I forgot you were coming in today. I would have...I would have been there."

Makenna shakes her head against his shoulder, tightening her arms because she doesn't want him to let go just yet. "It's fine. I would say I understand but it doesn't look like you went to work today?" Her voice raises at the end in question.

Charlie looks like he's hurting and Makenna has so little family left, even less now, and she would do anything to take the hurt away from her family and lessen their burden. Compassion is what Charlie has always called it. Dominic's named it a character flaw.

"Harry died. His funeral was today."

"Clearwater?" Makenna asks, finally allowing Charlie to pull away only so she can inspect him and actually get a look at him.

"Yeah." Charlie's voice is rougher when he answers. He clears his throat and blinks a couple times.

It's Makenna who instigates the hug this time, gripping Charlie as tightly as she can. She didn't know Harry Clearwater personally but every time Charlie would visit he brought along stories of Forks and his friends from the neighboring reservation. Little Makenna had loved those stories, especially the ones that he'd passed along from his Quileute friends, most of those involving wolves.

"I'm sorry for what you're going through Uncle Charlie. I wish I could take your pain away," she whispers into his ear, tightening her arms.

"Thanks, kiddo. Now," Charlie lightly pushes Makenna back and she goes. His eyes rake down her person and he smiles. "Let's get you out of this rain and into your new room."

"You got it Chief." The chuckle Makenna get's in response causes her to smile brightly. That is what she wants from her family.

Charlie leads Makenna to the front door and grabs hold of her biggest suitcase. When she goes to take it from him he waves her off with a laugh, focusing on unlocking the front door. "I've got it, Kenny. Go get your bag and the smaller one."

"You didn't need to take it. I can handle it," she grumbles, entering the house after Charlie.

With a shake of his head, Charlie chuckles as he begins talking while walking through the house. "I turned my old study into your bedroom. It was good to clean that mess up. I've added a few things but didn't do much decorating so it's yours to play with. There's one bathroom in the house, I'm sure you're used to it, and Bella's room is across from yours. I'm on the bottom floor."

"No bathroom down here?"

"It's one of those old homes," Charlie explains.

"Well thank you again, Uncle Charlie. You really didn't have to do all of this for me, I could have slept on the couch or something."

"Don't be ridiculous. You're Dom's baby and my baby niece. No niece of mine sleeps on the floor or couch if I have any say in the matter."

"I'm your only niece," Makenna says around a laugh.

"Exactly." Charlie grins at her from the top of the stairs, eyes sharp as he watches her climb them. "These won't be a problem will they?"

"Psh. Nope. I lived in an apartment building, remember?"

"With an elevator."

"Touche, touche, but I can handle the stairs."

He nods and waits till she's at the top before rounding the railing. He opens the door to the room that overlooks the driveway. Makenna sticks to his tail, eagerly waiting for the door to open so she can see what her new room looks like.

She has to peer around Charlie to see inside when the door opens. The first things she sees is a desk under a large window. Next, her eyes travel to the white walls waiting to be decorated. In the corner by the window is bed with a small bookcase at the foot with a dresser tucked into the corner behind the door. The wall opposite to the bed and dresser has a string that zig-zags down the wall with clothing pins attached to it.

Makenna steps further into her room when Charlie steps aside, dropping her backpack and suitcase. The bed has maroon covers with a matching rug in the middle of the room. Fairy lights are strung up over her bed while small potted plants and other knick-knacks are scattered around the room. The room is perfect, beyond perfect, and Makenna can't seem to shut her mouth. She turns in a circle a couple of times just to take it all in.

"I hope you like it. There's a lot of green out your window but I remember the plants you kept around the apartment in Chicago. Maroon has always been your favorite color, figured it would give this room some more color. There's no closet so I got you a dresser but I can pick up a wardrobe if you need it instead." Charlie sets the suitcase he's holding down and points to the clothing line. "Thought you could use that for some of your pictures or something else but you're more than welcome to take it down."

It takes Makenna a couple of minutes to find her voice, overwhelmed by the thought Charlie put into her room. "It's good. It's all really good, amazing." Her misty eyes meet Charlie's gaze. "This is perfect actually. I love this room and the plants that are perfect and the maroon is perfect and the picture line is..."

"Perfect?"

"Yeah. Yes. Thank you so, so much." She steps forward and hugs Charlie as tightly as she can.

"I'm glad you like it, Kenny."

"Love it," she corrects with a grin.

"Love it," he amends. "I'll leave you to unpack.

"You got it Chief." She turns to survey her room again when a thought occurs to her. "Uncle Charlie!" she calls to stop his retreat. "Where's Bella?"

Charlie pauses for a moment before answering, "Not sure kiddo. I'll go check on her, you just worry about unpacking."

"Kay." She lets Charlie leave this time, her eyes falling on her bed which she just wants to collapse into.

Instead, Makenna lays both suitcases down and opens them up. Deciding to put her clothes away first, Makenna starts transferring all of her clothes into the dresser and puts her coats on the coat hook by the door. Her progress interrupted by the sound of Charlie cursing and something slamming on the table downstairs. It makes her jump, dropping the clothes in her hand.

Worry and panic gnaw at her gut and it causes her to rush out of her room and fly down the stairs. By the time she makes it to the kitchen she's lightly gasping for air but ignores it in favor of looking for Charlie.

"Uncle Charlie?" she manages to get out.

"Kenny?" He looks up and tries to jump out of the chair when he sees her but is stopped by the table. When he gets out he moves around the table to pull the other chair out. "Sit."

Without complaint, Makenna falls into the chair. She tips her head back and closes her eyes, taking deep, measured breaths. When her head no longer feels staticky or like it's swimming, she tips it back down and finds Charlie's face. If it were possible, the lines on his face seem to have grown in number and deeper. She covers one of his hands with one of hers.

"What's wrong Uncle Charlie?"

"Bella's left."

"Left?" The idea that her cousin has up and left without telling her father seems like such a foreign concept to Makenna. And hadn't she left Forks once before? "Left to where?"

Charlie doesn't answer simply holding out a crumpled sheet of paper. Using her free hand, Makenna's takes the paper and pulls it closer to read over.

The gist of the short note is that Bella has gone to Italy to save her ex-boyfriend. From what? Bella doesn't mention. When she'll return? Bella also didn't mention. Makenna is missing a lot of the story she knows, but what she does understand is that Bella has left her father in his time of need to go after her ex that left her. Charlie has mentioned the bare bones to Dominic and Makenna about Bella's broken heart that put her in a depressed state. The note and connected dots make her frown.

Her lip falls victim to her distress being bitten to an early death. Blue eyes rove around the kitchen in an attempt to find something to say, to ease Charlie's growing pain. "Does Harry's family need anything?" she finally comes up with.

This earns her a funny from Charlie and Makenna counts it as a personal victory. "What?"

"Harry's family, do they need anything? Maybe I could help or something."

"Not sure," Charlie confesses after a minute. Makenna easily recognizes part of his hesitance to answer is from being thrown for a loop because of the shift in conversation. "Sue's a tough woman and has been handling everything well, better than anyone I know would have. Not sure about the kids but Leah's been more of a lone wolf anyway and Seth was hanging with Sam's group at the funeral."

Makenna makes a noise of inquiry. "Sam's group? Sounds kind of ominous."

"Nah. He's a good kid. Seems to adopt these kids and helps them pick themselves up and gives them friends. They're all really close. Just ignore the rumors some of the reservation folk say about them."

"Can do. But maybe we could do something for Sue and the kids. I'm not the best cook but I can make some a few long-lasting dishes. The company might do her some good too?"

"Sounds like a plan Kenny. We'll go over tomorrow morning. Have you eaten?" Charlie asks all of a sudden. "Of course you haven't. We should get something in you."

Makenna can't help the giggles even if she wants too. "It's fine Uncle Charlie. Sometimes I'm not that hungry, like right now. I'll finish unpacking, maybe grab a quick shower, and then whip something up."

"I don't know why I can't get this providing thing down."

"You're doing just fine Chief." Makenna stands and leans over to place a quick kiss on Charlie's cheek. She leaves with a grin and a wave.

Unpacking doesn't take Makenna nearly as long as she feared it would. Turns out, she didn't have that much stuff with her. First, the rest of her clothes is put away including the shirt she dropped earlier. After that, Makenna places her photo album and a few books on the bookshelf, adding one of the plants in the room to it for some color. Other random things she brought find a place in her room as well. Makenna decides to leave the photo wall for another day as a project and then proceeds to ignore it for the rest of the evening. Her laptop and camera go on her desk and she finishes cleaning out her backpack.l.

Once everything is emptied, Makenna closes her suitcases and puts them in the corner with a hamper since she doesn't know what to do with them. Her backpack goes on the desk chair to be filled later. When Makenna considered herself done, she stepped into the doorway and looked around. Makenna Swan was officially unpacked.

After a quick thought, Makenna decides that she does want to grab a quick shower before eating. Her last shower was the night before and she's been on two airplanes and around so many people she can practically feel them clinging to her and if there is one thing Makenna hates, it's carrying her day with her when she's supposed to be relaxing and comfortable.

Mind made up, Makenna heads into the bathroom. Charlie had told her a few days prior to send him a list of all the bathroom toiletries she would need and he would get them. A quick inspection of the bathroom shows that he held to his word. Stripping quickly, Makenna jumps into the shower.

No dilly-dallying makes this shower one of the fastest she's ever taken and she can't help mentally patting herself on the back as she wraps her towel around her body. There's an extra towel for her that she uses for her hair to get it from wet to damp. Before leaving the restroom, Makenna puts her hair into a low bun to leave for the night so she won't have to worry about doing anything to her hair in the morning. The genius of no-heat curls.

Back in her room, Makenna deposits her clothes into the hamper and pulls some shorts and an old Elton John shirt along with underwear. After she's changed, Makenna places the towel over the back of her chair and heads downstairs.

Dinner that night turns out to be grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Makenna hadn't been joking when she said she wasn't hungry and after the day he's had, Charlie doesn't have much of an appetite either. He insists on doing the dishes, much to Makenna's ire, but points out the fact that she cooked. She curses his logic.

While he retires to the living room after the kitchen is cleaned up, Makenna decides to make the meals for Sue. Thankfully Charlie has everything she needs for the three meals she has in mind. For the most part, making the meals in relaxing and when all is done, Makenna has two large Tupperware containers of each meal. She hopes it's enough.

As if sensing what Makenna was about to do, some strange sixth-sense, Charlie calls from the living room, "Leave the dishes."

"But-"

"You cooked." Sound logic once again makes an appearance. "Come and sit with your favorite uncle."

With good-hearted grumbling, Makenna shuffles out of the kitchen into the living room and flops onto the couch. Charlie raises an arm and she's under it and curled into Charlie's side before he can blink. By nature, Makenna is a tactile person, seeking it from her family since she lacks close friends. Dominic and Charlie have always been accommodating about it and handed her their affection like it was candy despite their less than tactile natures.

A baseball game rerun plays on the television as the two Swans sit in silence. It lasted for half-an-hour before Charlie broke it. "How are you holding up Kenny?"

Makenna has to fight the typical I'm fine that wants to come out, that she's been saying anytime anyone asks because Charlie deserves better than that. She's made it a habit to not lie to family and she doesn't want to start changing her ways now so she thinks about it, honestly thinks about how she's doing.

"Surviving. It was harder back in Chicago when I was alone and everywhere and everything reminded me of... and it hurt, so much, all the time. But I'll make it through this because, because. It's easier here, being with you and being in someplace so different from Chicago. I'm glad I'm here, with you."

"I'm not good at all this talking and feelings stuff but I'm here for you Kenny if you need me. To unload or talk or listen. When you're ready, if you want, I can tell you some stories about Dom I'm sure you haven't heard yet." Charlie runs a hand over Makenna's arm, the other scratches at his cheek, a show of his discomfort. Though he smiles when she relaxes even further into his side.

"Really? I think I'd like that when it doesn't hurt so much."

"Just tell me when. I'll even pull out the old albums."

After a minute Makenna asks, "How are you holding up Uncle Charlie?"

"Not sure kiddo. Don't think I've processed it fully and now with Harry, but I'm happy you're here too. You might have gotten your hair and eye color from your mother but everything else is all Dom."

"Except the shortness."

"No. That's all you Kenny, all you."

They both break into laughter, watching someone run across the home plate on the television when they calm down. "I'm here for you too, Uncle Charlie. Just so you know. About," Makenna's voice catches but she powers through, "Or Harry or anything. I'd like to think I'm good at listening."

After a natural pause where Charlie gives Makenna's arm a squeeze he says, "How